Science and technologies impact our lives every day. I study how different ‘technosciences’ emerge and to answer questions about how science is shaped in material, organisational and rhetorical ways. Along with contemporary shifts in science and engineering research I am interested in interdisciplinary research, both working with other disciplines and studying how others accomplish collaboration and innovation. This had led me to my current focus on methodological developments and research infrastructures in both natural and social sciences. I am involved in scoping out research training needs for UK social science. 

My work has mostly focused on the field of synthetic biology - an engineering approach to biology - where proponents hope to standardise biology to make it easier to engineer and solve global challenges. I am also interested in how nonscientists make sense of scientific knowledge and innovations and how they work with them in their everyday lives. In other projects I have explored nuclear decommissioning collaborations between Ukraine and UK and, separately, researcher development initiatives. In line with the latter, I was a founder of the Postgraduate Forum for Science, Technology and Innovation studies (PFSTIS), which supports PhD students and Early Career Researchers.  

I originally trained as a biomedical scientist at the University of Sheffield and was interested in drugs used to treat conditions such as schizophrenia. I worked for two years researching the biochemical side effects of antipsychotics before deciding to try other things. I spent time as a confectioner, in hospitality and the marketing profession, before retraining as a teacher of science and, while looking for funding for an Ed.D., stumbled upon the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) in 2012. I completed my Ph.D. (University of Sheffield) four years later and moved to the University of Manchester where I am currently a Presidential Fellow in Sociology. 

I welcome prospective PhD students who are interested in the following: 

• Knowledge production in the physical and biological sciences 
• Research infrastructures 
• Methodological innovation and experimentation 
• Theoretical work in relation science and technology studies, actor-network theory and nonhumans. 

In 2019/2020 I have minimal teaching commiments. Previously, I led postgraduate seminars on Dr Andrew Balmer's excellent module on "Secrets, Lies and Mass Deception"; supervised Level 3 student dissertations and led undergraduate seminars on the "Sociological Imagination" and "Sociological Methods" modules at The University of Sheffield